Nice, very2 nice!

Lovely.....Image looks beautiful....

Lovely, but cropped a little too close at the top. IMO

excellent, well done. personally, I like the close crop on this........imo, it gives emphasis to the bottles and the packaging around them............good luck.

the focus on front bottle is so cooll.. excellent... good luck author..

WOW! This wasn't from the author I "thought" it was!!! Very good work author...nicely done, lighting and focus are wonderful here...GL

I fell in love!!! Awesome picture!

itsmymoment, thanks for compliment! But I have a long way to go till I'm at the level of who I assume you "thought" this was! I just started doing photography in January, so I'm pretty sure that person has a LOT more experience then me, but maybe one day I'll get to that point

Excellent. Keep it up.

great shot

I really like this for some reason.

Congratulations on the first place!!! Well done, locksmagic!
I love your entry!!!!

Congrats for your first place, Locksmagic!

Congrats on your 1st, an excellent composition..well done

excellent..............perfectly on theme, and very well shot..........

I agree with cyprus.. well done..

awesome shot and perfectly on theme ! what did you do to get this ?

Lamantine, it took 2 mono-lights and a reflector. The first was mounted to a 20x30 soft-box and placed underneath pointing up for the bottom lighting, the second was just above and 45 degrees on left with a cyan gel filter for cooling effect and and a reflector on the right to keep detail in the shadows. Set on clear plexi and a whit foam-core board for background. Tripod and remote release...simple as that...oh, and a spray bottle for the "icy cold" refreshment look! Thanks for your comments and as always, good luck on your entries this week also...

wow thanks author for sharing the process, I definitely learned something out of it... would like to PM you for other suggestions and tutorials..

My kind of 6-pack!
Great shot!

I love creative lighting.....

Very hard work. Good shot.

awesome

Congrats for your second place!

Congrats on your 2nd, very well done.

Great clarity,love the color!!!

Lovely snap author......GL..

Wow, What an arrangement!

awesome shot ! beautiful flowers

Great job Author ! Very nice picture !

Congrats for your third place, Friiskiwi!

Congrats on your 3rd.........great composition.

Lelaina and Ade, thank you.

I think the picture needs little more contrast between the objects and the background. As the objects are mostly white and the background is white it kinda melts in. Changing the background to something else would benefit this picture by letting the objects stick out more to the eye.

Other than that, I think this picture is really nice.

Shikyo, thanks for the suggestion, I understand what you are saying but I shot this tonight for a project due in my lighting class tomorrow on High Key, we had to have a white object on a white background. I decided to use six cigarettes and matches so that I could also enter it into this contest.

For a High Key shot, this is good, and it is also on topic for this contest......well done....good luck.

Ah...I wasn't aware of it's "double" use. In that case, yes there's nothing wrong with it.

nice hi-key shot, your use of lighting here is spot-on, well done

I think the shot is pretty cool... but, I will be a little picky here on the theme: "This is about something which is packaged in 6... like 6 eggs, 6 cigars, etc. The rules are that the subjects of the photo should be 6 in number, should be packed, and should be countable so that we will be sure that it is a '6 pack.'
So, for as much as you have only 6 cigarettes and six matches, neither of those are really 6-packs, but rather, a pack with only 6 items left in them...
But, in terms of photo quality and composition, I likes it A LOT!

You raise a good point but as the person who made the idea for this contest says "if the object don't come in a package of 6, YOU pack them.. put them in a box, cover, polythene etc." I have adhered to the rules exactly, the subjects are six in number, are packed, and are countable. The contest says nothing about them having to be as originally packed or even in the same packaging.

Author... I had not read that in the comments... in that case... I will just stick to the first phrase in my comment... I think the shot is pretty cool!!!

Lovely work man.....And a good High key shot......

beautiful shot ! i love this

Topic wise, I really like the picture. Burned out matches look really nice. At first look the matches themselves stick out easily for the eye to see them. Though the picture is little dark, maybe too dark. The matches kinda melt to the darkness(though it's slightly better at high resolution) so it's hard to see any details on the matches. Also at high resolution it's clear that the image is soft. To avoid this use a tripod, a table or anything you can put your camera nicely so that it won't move all too much after you push the trigger.

Definitely a nice image for your first attempt, nyaa. Keep it up and you'll get some excellent pictures.

a great first attempt.............although you said it was your first 'digital' cam, I suspect it is not your first cam!!!. The shot is composed reasonably well, although the focus could have been better. The subject works well in black and white. If this is what you are going to turn out, you will do well soon.....good luck

Thank you for the tips. I did in fact use a tripod but for some reason I still had issues with the picture coming out blurry. I suspect it is due to the long exposure I had and the camera moving ever so slightly when I hit the shutter button. I am currently working on a solution to that little problem.
And yes, this is my first cam (other than point and shoot). Thanks for the encouragement!

Oh...there's an easy solution for that. The camera should have a timer, so use the timer instead of pushing the trigger yourself. So when you yourself push the shutter it won't take the shake from that as the actually trigger is going to be few seconds later, therefore you can avoid the shake from pushing the shutter.

Another option is to get a external remote/shutter for the camera, which also neglects the trouble coming from pushing the shutter yourself.

I'm ordering the remote/shutter today but using the camera's timer in the meantime is a brilliant idea. Thanks a bunch!

nicely done, good comp and tone, nice B&W subject...as stated before, to prevent all camera shat, either the timer or a cable release of some sort will definitely help...nice entry author

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions, everyone. I will be reshooting this tonight with a timer and hopefully it will be much less soft. It should also be noted that I am getting help and advice from a photography buddy of mine (the same one who inspired me to take this up). Without his expertise and advice there is NO WAY I would have been able to set up a low key shot.

Maybe a little too dark, indeed... though the composition is quite striking!
BUT, I will repeat what I wrote to an entry above:
"This is about something which is packaged in 6... like 6 eggs, 6 cigars, etc. The rules are that the subjects of the photo should be 6 in number, should be packed, and should be countable so that we will be sure that it is a '6 pack.'"
So, for as much as you have only six matches, it is really not a 6-pack, but rather, a pack with only 6 matches left in it...

another example of if the object don't come in a package of 6, YOU pack them... I think it's on theme

Locks... I make my same "re"comment here as I did in the former image... Forget my pickiness and I will stick to:
Maybe a little too dark, indeed... though the composition is quite striking!
lol

great idea.... gl

nice try , but a bit out of focus , good luck !

Lamantine the fact that it's oof has already been discussed in depth, I think the author might want to hear a fresh comment.